001Welcome back. I'll call this meeting of the regular meeting of the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees meeting taking place on May 11, 2026. And again, a reminder that these meetings are being recorded and will be uploaded on our website at some point in the future. And with that, Mr. Deakons, would you administer the roll call? >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson. Gordon Johnson, >> present. Kim Skornagoski. >> Uh, excuse. >> Bill Bronson here. Craig Duff >> here. >> A Chenning >> here. >> Marley Sunchild >> here. >> Amy Thompson >> here. >> Chairman Johnson, you have a quorum for which to work. Thank you, Mr. Deakons. >> Mr. Chair, >> Trusty Henny, >> I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any
002questions or commentary from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery hearing? Seeing none, I'll call for the question. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please signify by saying I. I >> oppose. Same sign. Thank you very much. Communication student representatives. Mrs. January, >> we have to approve the consent agenda. >> Oh, thank you, Trusty Henning. I need to have us approve the consent agenda. >> Mr. Chair, >> Trusty Henny, >> I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded to pro approve the consent agenda. Um, any questions or commentary from the board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from our gallery? Hearing and seeing none. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please signify with saying I. >>
003I. Oppose. Same sign. The consent agenda has been approved. And no, with no further delay, we will have our student representatives. Thank you. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, members of the community. We have our student representatives ready. This is the last meeting of the year that they'll be presenting. And so we'll start with Paris and then we'll go to CMR and then Great Falls High. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, Trustees, and members of the community. I'm here to present for Paris today. When science meets art, music is made. Miss Sen, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I just butchered that. Senor Oh, I cannot say her name apparently tonight. Miss Walters teamed up for the science of music and a little ukulele fun. The atmosphere insertation burn
004was perfect for the help of a few Paris students, Paris Gibson students. Mr. L Logan is super cool and very helpful with these lessons. 2026 Paris Prom was such a success. Student voice and staff worked tireously to create a fun and super memorable prom. Nails science enrichment turned a lesson into a fancy nail prep for prom. The annual chicken lab was a success as always. These checks were very well cared for and super talented. In culinary, they made pizza and puff pastries last week. We're so grateful that they were able to share their creations. Mr. Logan and his crew installed one new hive and discovered that the queen bee did survive during the transformation. We are constantly impressed by parents or Paris students creativity and skills. Our earth science lessons concluded with a collaboration project
005of art. We loved these ones. They were one of a kind pebble art gifts. John Isaiah Heftton is a well-known artist from the Black Feet Nation in northern Montana. Our Indigenous Education for All department was able to bring John into the high schools. He explained to students how his art has been ceremonial in understanding his past, his family, and his culture. He shared his traditional ledger art and let the students create some as well. Alex Cole earns this Sack Colton miral of distinction award. Alex just stood out being a senior and going through tremendous obstacles in their life and continuing to be a maker. Alex was a clear worthy winner of this award. Paris Gibson will miss Alex dearly. Zach's sister Adrenaline Colton. While our students explored sculptures in the wild, they made connections to
006conservation and biology. They also experimented with angles and lighting using their photography skills. Willow hunting with Curtis was always a very fun lesson. Curtis always knows the best place is to harvest willows for the dream catcher lessons. We are really making the most of having ele the Lincoln Elementary School children in the building. These kids love learning archery with Dugan. A full circle bell ringing moment. Kirsten Dej and her five great five fifth grade class was able to join the bell ringing for a previous Lincoln student of hers. This is graduating from Paris. Such a great full circle moment. Thank you for having us this year. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. I'm Addie Chris, and I'm starting off the presentation for CMR. So, for the
007first lesson we loved, our forens our forensics students got to take a field trip to the police station to learn about crime scene investigations. Our SRO's Will and Kelly at the GFPD provided a wonderful day of learning. We would like to give a special shout out to Walmart for supporting our teachers last week during teacher appreciation week. They brought over snacks and treats for our staff. Students also wrote teacher appreciation notes, and our administrators gave them gifts each day and provided lunch on Friday. We hope they know how much they mean to all of us. Another lesson we loved was made possible by the Great Falls Public School Foundation for providing the grant money for both binoculars and the bus. During a biology field trip, students saw at least 28 different bird species. Some of
008the species included American avocets, bald eagle, northern shovelers, northern pinttails, snow glee, blacknecked stilts, and a great blue heron. Students also saw a coyote, white-tailed deer, and a pong horn. Students spent most of their time at Benton Lake Wildlife Refuge and then traveled to Wadsworth Park. It was a great day out in nature learning about Montana birds and wildlife. We sent a bus full of students to help cheer on Special Olympics athletes last week. It is one of the most joyful events of the year. Our students love cheering for their peers on the track field. Thank you to our wrestlers for donating time to help set up the Mayfair with benefits. Our CMR softball team also donated time to help one of our neighbors with property cleanup. We love to see rusters giving back to
009their community. Mr. Hibbert's chemistry class had a rainbow day recently as they studied acids and bases. They used the pH indicator and specific solutions to create layered rainbows. They then diagrammed their work to understand the chemical reactions taking place. Congratulations to our JOTC cadetses who have worked so hard throughout this year. We were able to celebrate at their promotion ceremony last weekend. Thank you JCT for all you do for GFPS students, staff, and our entire community of Great Falls. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. I'm Emerson Hammond and I will continue the presentation. Uh spring sports are nearing postseason action. Track had a duel against Capital on Saturday and we will have cross town tomorrow uh before we head to divisionals in state. So far
010we've had four state qualifiers. Tea Oer in the high jump and the long jump. Tegan Hegdal in the triple jump. Stella Damianovich in the 1600 and 3200. And myself in the 800,600 and 3200. Baseball had their senior night last Tuesday and beat the Bison in the first cross town baseball game 16 to1. Softball also had their senior day on May 2nd and played the first of two cross town games on Friday. They will play the second one this week. Tennis has cross town this Thursday and then we'll have divisionals the following week. Mr. Comox classes have been competing in one-on-one haiku battles and the final showdowns have taken place. Each class period had an ultimate winner and they got to select prizes. Way to go AP English students. We inducted the newest set uh newest
011set of National Honor Society members recently. We also recognized Miss Britain as an impactful teacher during a ceremony with the doctor of service award. Way to go to these students and to Mrs. Britain. BPA had a great time at nationals. Delaney got eighth place in desktop publishing and Bristol got fourth in prepared speech. Eli Chris also got an ambassador award. CMR was recognized as a quality chapter. We are so proud of our BPA wrestlers. Another lesson we loved uh CMR art students had a lesson on the road with an amazing tour and portfolio feedback at Montana State University from professors and former CMR alumni Izzy. They also visited the Museum of the Rockies and the Montana History Museum in Helena. We've had a variety of celebrations this month to honor our seniors, including scholarship night
012and the senior dessert banquet. We are proud to share 102 out of our 270 seniors earned honor roll all four years of their high school careers and 11 seniors have earned a 4.0 their entire high school career. We also celebrated our most outstanding seniors in each department. our National Merit finalists and our Hall of Fame inductees. Most AP classes have been wrapping up. Uh so the lessons that I I've loved for this month have been AP tests. I know they're not anyone's favorite, but the pressure is off and I can sit back and relax now. Congratulations to our AP art students for wrapping up their year with a variety of scholarships and one final AP art and design show. Check out their work in the OC Seltzer Gallery from May 7th to May 31st. Good
013evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, and members of the community. I am Lydia Commtock, and I will finish our presentation today. Another lesson that we loved was in Mr. Anderson's English class. They were tackling Romeo and Juliet, specifically the balcony scene last week, and students took their student assigned casting roles very seriously and delivered wonderful performances. We elected our new student government members last week, so we have a full slate of new people. Congratulations to all of them. And next year, CMR student body will be led by Bristol Miners, myself and Connor Lu as our student body officers. Bristol Miners has earned the National Speech and Debate Association Academic All-American Award. This award recognizes academic rigor, competitive speech and debate success, and personal excellence. From more than 141,000 student members of the
014National Speech and Debate Association, fewer than 1% of all students earn the Academic All-American Award every year. This is a tremendous accomplishment and it places Bristol among the top 1% of all student members across the country. We are so incredibly proud of Bristol and her accomplishments. And as you might have remembered in February, we shared um this initial recognition when I won this award and Bristol won it around the same time. And Bristol and I are two out of three juniors in the state and two out of 183 juniors nationwide who have obtained this award. So she'll come around and shake your hands at this presentation. >> Excellent. Another lesson that we loved, each month, our health science students bring in medical professionals from the community to share information about their job and or teach
015them a new skill. So, thank you to Dave for teaching students how to suture using bananas. It was such a fun hands-on experience for everyone. We also had some journalism awards passed out at CMR. Congratulations to the members of our newspaper club. They earned first place for their work on wrestlernews.com in the pace setter category at the annual high school journalism day at the University of Montana. The final lesson that we loved was in the CTE field. Thank you to the Western States Carpenters Union for providing lunch to our high school house students and taking the time to talk about opportunities in the carpentry trade. Tobacco Construction and Western States carpenters shared real world insight and opportunities with our students. It was a great day of learning, connection, and pizza. And finally, the stage doesn't
016get much bigger for high school orchestra competitions and performances. And our wrestlers have received a second invitation based on their submissions for the National Orchestra Festival. We are the only school in Montana to have received this invitation twice. Please help us congratulate Mr. Olsen and our orchestra students for this incredible honor and achievement. They will head to Chicago next February to perform for the orchestra teachers and students from across the country. Mr. Olsen and our orchestra students are Russell Pride. And that concludes our presentation. >> Thank you, >> Miss Lydia. Did we have someone who needed to come up and shake the hands of the board? >> Please do. Yeah. Come on up and be recognized. >> Bravo. Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, members of the community and board. My name is Weston
017Stole. I'm a sophomore at Great Falls High and I have the privilege of starting our board presentation this month. Uh May is the month of mental health awareness. So this week, uh, Great Falls High Lift Group is hosting a mental health week, uh, dress up week. Um, Monday is wear PJs. Tuesday is wear purple, Wednesdays wear yellow, Thursdays wear red, and Fridays wear your Bison gear. This is a cool way of spreading awareness to those close to us and around us. It's a cool way to see the Bison family here to support our fellow Bison students and staff and anyone else struggling with mental health. A lesson we loved in Miss Vanderight's bio34 class. Uh they got the opportunity to dissect a lampay and a shark. It was a super cool way to or it
018was super cool to sit into that class um and see the different parts of animals that live in a totally different area than us. Even though it didn't smell good, it was super cool and a unique opportunity for our bison students. >> Teacher appreciation week to show some support. uh for all of our teachers, for all the for all that our teachers do. We had a um we had a breakfast for them, soda station bar, purple gold, and a few more things just to show how much we appreciate them. It's hard to pay them back for everything they do for us, but this is a good way to show our love through the Bison staff. Uh the JOTC flight, um some JOT students had um a special opportunity within the program. One of these opportunities
019was to do a free flight in the front seat of an airline. The students got got to get realtime experience flying fly flying a plane with no cost to them and and if they do well in the program, they can also earn a scholarship through this. The Golden Star Award. Congratulation to our B congratulations to our Bison Gold Star uh award winners. Um, okay. A gold star recognition award honors special teachers, admin, staff, and school leaders uh who contribute to the excellence in education. Our b our bison rep Oh my gosh. Representatives were uh Debbie, Miss Freshley, Mr. Meepum. Uh, oh my gosh. Medvad, Killian, Simkins, Legon, and Phil Davis. These ed these educators deserve these awards. And a huge thank you to the foundation. Another lesson a lesson we loved in our in our
020health 10 class. The teachers took the students into the old gym and had them run around the gym one time normally and the second time with a small straw in their mouth to see how it would be what it would be like over time if they put things into their lungs that shouldn't be there. This was a good way to get an eye openener for our young students to see how actions have consequences. Uh, good evening, Chairman Johnson. >> Yeah. Uh, Superintendent Hoyer, trustees, uh, members of the community. Uh, my name is Seth Rer. I'm a senior and I get to finish off our board report for the last time ever. So, yeah. Um, as and I'll try and go quick because we got plant bingo after this. Um, so starting off, Mr. Hobble takes
021the field. Um, he joined softball last Wednesday to show the girls who runs this town. Uh, he decided to join in a little little batting practice before cross town. So, shout out to Mrs. McGra for starting this fun trend. The only question now is can he hit a home run, too. >> That'd be fun to find out. We should have him play. He'd probably start, honestly. Um, last week we celebrated the hard work and bright futures of our graduating seniors. Um, thanks to community, alumni, families, and local organizations, many GR Falls High students were awarded scholarships to support their next chapter in life. Uh, congratulations to all of our recipients, and thank you to everyone who helped make these opportunities possible each year. Uh, next is spring sports. Um, they're moving right along. Uh, like
022Emerson said, we have cross town tomorrow. Um, then after that, divisionals of state. So, that's going to be really fun. Um, baseball is doing really, really well with a program high of three and nine because they haven't played before. So, they're doing pretty great. Uh, softball is also playing games this season with a current record of four and 13. Um, and tennis has also had a pretty good season so far. I I tried to find a record for tennis, but none of my friends knew. So, they're doing good. Uh, next we also had the JRI awards ceremony. Um, so shout out to those guys. It's a great way to honor all the cadets who worked hard. um throughout the year and throughout all four years. Um so thank you to the the Jay Rosi um
023for all you do for the students and staff at Great Falls High as well as the entire community at Great Falls. Um shout out to our junior Bailey Gilbert for taking first place in that Trigar contest. Um Bailey and about 30 others from Great Falls High and many other high school students um from CMR around the area, Great Falls took on a great challenge. We wanted to give a shout out to Bailey for getting first place in the contest and it's cool to see our bison growing stronger each and every day. Um, a lot like Emerson, I've been doing AP tests and stuff for a really long time and I don't have a picture for this one like he did because you can't take the your phone in there. Um, so, uh, a lot of
024students have been they've been working really really hard. Um, and I mean so I I just want to shout out the teachers like the the AP teachers are absolutely amazing. We had McName at Great Falls High. He would um go to school all day, help us out there, and then he would go to baseball practice and then come back to the school at around 6:30, like his full baseball get up and he would teach us uh gov till like 9:00 at night, which like he's amazing for that. And sometime we play these little like memory games and stuff. We got really loud one time. I was surprised the janitors didn't come in and yell at us, but it was really fun. Um, Miss Dixon, my my Cal teacher, she made us all like snack bags,
025like a whole pack of gum inside of them, like notes on the on the on the bags and all that stuff. So, I big shout out to all our AP teachers. They're they're really great and they they sacrifice a lot of time to make sure that we have success. So, it's it's really great for them. And finally, we have one more piece of trivia. Um, so this is >> this is Halamo. Um, don't read the article because it'll give it away. Um, this week's Bison Trivia is a standout star athlete. He graduated from Great Falls High and was later named the best athlete ever produced by Great Falls High School by the Great Falls Tribute. Um, he earned letters and all state honors in six sports and went on to play football collegially and professionally.
026So, first question, what six school sponsored sports did Halo participate in? You guys can discuss. Football, basketball, track. Did we have swimming then? >> No, swimming isn't one of them. >> If you give up, you can say it's okay. >> Wrestling. Yeah. >> No. >> Are the Are there more than one um events of track? >> No. Just just track, but track is one of them. >> There's three. >> Cross country. >> Horseshoes. >> Nope. You're close. It is. It is a weird one like that though. Okay. I'll just say it's it's football, baseball, track, baseball, handball, and boxing. >> Oh, basketball and baseball. Sorry. >> And boxing. We had boxing back then, >> I guess. So, >> yeah. And handball. I had to look that up. I still don't know what it is. It
027looks like It looks like raetball with a with a dodgeball. >> So, that must have been pretty fun. And then the second question is, what pro football team did Hal play for? And it still exists to this day in the NFL. Nope. They did move though. They did move, but they kept the same name. >> Yeah. The Chicago or the Cardinals. >> The Cardinals. >> Cardinals. Yeah. So, that was pretty cool. I didn't know that. I didn't. Yeah, it was in there. It calls it the the National Professional Football League. I looked it up and Google was like, "No, it's actually it's called this." I was like, "I have a thing that says it's not." So, all right. Sorry I've rambled long enough. Uh, that's our board report for this month. Thank you. >> Oh,
028thank you. That's fun. >> And that brings us up to communication B. And that's Mrs. Hoyer's superintendent's report. Well, thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, and members of our community. This is um kind of a fun one to do. So, I dinkked around with AI. You guys aren't the only ones who do a look at those graduation announcements right there, you guys. But what I wanted to do was call out a very, very special congratulations to our three seniors for all you have done and and brought to our board meetings. You are so appreciated and good luck in the future. Um, no matter where that future takes you, remember where home is and we look forward to seeing what you do. Um, you know that it is getting close to the end of
029the school year and summertime when graduations pop up and swimming lesson registration pops up. Um, so if you know anybody who's interested in swimming lessons registration, um, Great Falls High School is the place for that. Give them a call over there. I want to give a very special thank you and shout out to Carol Paul. Um, one of her passion projects is building or raising readers. Um, over the course of the year, she had 30 volunteers who volunteered over 14,000 hours at four schools, helping our students by donating an hour of time to go in and actually sit and read with the student. Um, she had a little reception for them. It was fun and uplifting. And just a special thank you to Carol and those 30 volunteers. um when thank you doesn't quite feel
030like enough. So I know I have forgotten someone on this but um Mr. Boyd and Mrs. Mainwearing and Mr. Decon and the crew um organized an incredible effort to help clean up our neighbors yards. Um, the only thing that is worse than having blowing insulation all over your yard is having blowing insulation that has had snow and rain and sle and and packed it down tight into the yards. And so, um, we gave several days as did Dick Anderson Construction, Great Falls Area Realtors, Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce. There's Mrs. Bane wearing and Ed Brown there in the bottom. Um, I like how Ed's holding the bag and you're doing the work, Jackie. I think that's that's awesome. Um, our Jay Rossy crew, Lincoln Elementary has been out. I think they're still going out
031every now and then and cleaning here and there. Um, and then our buildings and grounds, um, Lance, Jackie, Luke, Heather Spurs, Caitlin Marzik, Sher Clark, Caitlyn didn't know when she took the job just like a month ago that she would be raking yards for a couple days. >> Um, Brent Cutler, Jeff Williams, the names go on and on. We had just an outpouring of support as we helped clean neighbors yards. Um, it was warm, it was sweaty, and it was fantastic. And so, thank you to everybody who pitched in and helped us accomplish this. As you heard earlier, we had Sunshine's Smiles and Special Olympics on May 1st um at Great Falls High School, both on the tracking field and in the pool. They are their state games this week in Billings. So, if we
032have any of our um Great Falls students who are state qual or state champions, we will have them with us later um during a board meeting and be able to shake their hands and congratulate them on their gold medals. Um they did track and field, they did botchi, swimming and cycling. The the stands were full. It was loud. There was lots of help and lots of enthusiasm. It was a lot of fun. Scholarship night you also heard about. We had 108 students recognized with 227 scholarships given. But this doesn't happen without an incredible amount of hard work from executive director Caitlyn Marzik and her staff. Especially um our special thanks to Joan Dailyaly who is the one who runs the scholarship program. Um the foundation gave out a lot of money, a lot of accolades,
033and a lot of hope and opportunity. I'm going to steal that from Mrs. Jake um to students. So, just a special thank you to those who helped and and filled in for donors and representatives unable to attend. I know several of you did and thank you for doing that. So, data for the day is going to be split up a little bit. I want to show you some numbers real quick and then we're going to give some shoutouts to some people and I'm going to save the very best for last. So, May is recognition month with 54% of our staff being recognized. So, I had Shannon in human resources give me the more current numbers because she updates them all the time as numbers eb and flow with hires and um with resignations. And so,
034you will see here across the board um the groups of individuals who we have working for us in the district. So, I'm going to tell you a little bit now about the individuals that we recognized this month. And we're going to start with bus driver appreciation day. They're not up there because they are contracted with us through a special contract. So, they're not an employee. But bus driver appreciation day was April 28th. Thank you to Mr. Decon for showing up at 5:00 early. Um 5:00 um I heard he made an illegal Uturn in spot he wasn't supposed to make an illegal U-turn in the busy yard. So, something might become But there are 60 bus drivers that help Great Falls Public Schools. They all have a commercial CDL or school bus or and school bus
035um endorsement on their license. They have to pass a medical fitness test. They have to have their first aid so they can administer first aid CPR when needed. And they have to pass a rigorous background check and have a good uh driving record. They drive 66 routes every day. They make five noon time runs for us. Our motor coach drivers are also school bus drivers. And so there are seven substitute drivers over the course of the year in for the elementary they drive 615,72 miles for our secondary that 256,142 miles. And our coaches will run over 60,000 miles a year. >> So we took them donuts. We probably should have taken them halos and angel's wings because these guys um work really really hard to keep our kids safe. And so, um, it's the most
036important job that we have. School lunch hero day was on May 1st. So, here are some food service facts. Um, we have 74 food service employees that run eight or with 18 satellite leads, four production cooks, and three production managers. In total, since the beginning of the year, they have served over a million meals. On average, they serve about 7,300 meals a day and they process about 223,000 pounds of fresh produce throughout the year. So, warehouse facts and we we celebrated the warehouse um earlier this year, but they have six staff members who run four routes who make 50 stops a day and about 800 miles a week to take all that work that's done up above and make it happen and get it out to all of our buildings. School principal day was May
0371st. So, thank you very much to our principles who are still with us in in the audience. We have 15 elementary principles, two middle school principles, and three high school principles. APS and coordinators are actually celebrated earlier in April and I um had mentioned them before. So, I'm just going to shout out to the principles. Requirements, a lot of people think they can be a principal. They can't. You have to have a master's degree or higher. um in to include required coursework. You have to have a minimum of three years of experience in teaching and you have to be eligible to hold a Montana teaching license, an Indian education course, you now have to pass a practice exam. You didn't when I was a principal, so that has changed. And you also have to pass
038the background check. Um there is one of our elementary principles right there, Mr. Jakes, getting up high in the face because I believe his students met their reading goal. So our principles do a lot of things in addition to all those requirements. They do the things that that inspire the kids. Teacher appreciation week was May 4th through 8th. Our teachers, we have 695 of them. That is in our preschool through adult ed. We have generalists to subject area specialists across our district. So in order to be a teacher, I'm recruiting shamelessly here for anybody who thinks they may want to be a teacher in the future. um bachelor's degree from an accredited university. You can get a class for career technical education industry expert license, pass a practice exam, do a background check and take
039the Indian education for all. So our teachers are amazing. They change lives every day. And I know we saw pictures of breakfast and cookies and purple gold and celebration. Um, that is the least we can do to celebrate people who put hours and hours of their life and dedication into growing little humans into pretty amazing people. And the last slide is we have a special guest in the audience. Our school nurse day is May 6. We have 22 school nurses. We are very very lucky as um one of the school districts that's able to actually have a school nurse in our schools. requirements. Bachelor of Science and Nursing, active registered nurse license, previous clinical experience in pediatric, community health, or school nursing. Um, I hope that these are right because I got them off the
040federal site or the national site and the national school nurse certification preferred. But Miss Erica Hart was our lead nurse for Great Falls Public Schools has been named the school nurse administrator of the year for Montana uh by the National Association of School Nurses and Erica is here with us this evening. Um, I want to read something from her nomination. Um, this recognition reflects Erica's outstanding leadership, professional vision, and steadfast commitment to the health and well-being of students, staff, and school communities. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated exceptional dedication to advancing school nursing at local, state, and national levels. Within Grave Falls Public Schools, Erica has fostered a culture of excellence grounded in evidence-based practice and student- centered care. Through thoughtful leadership, meaningful professional development, and collaborative, strong partnerships, she has strengthened nursing practice across
041the district and advanced student health outcomes. Her calm, capable leadership combined with her ability to build strong, independent teams has earned the respect of colleagues throughout Great Falls Public Schools Montana and beyond. Those who work along Erica know they are both supported and challenged to grow. Her leadership is marked by humility often reflected by her team members. And this is a quote from Erica. I'm successful in part or from um Erica. I'm successful in part because of the support I receive. So, please join us in congratulating Erica in this well-deserved honor. Um, we have an incredible nursing program here in Great Falls. Sets the standard for the state because of the leadership that she does every single day in our buildings. So, ERICA, UH, thank you, um, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board,
042and the community members. Um, this is one of the greatest honors I could have in my professional career. So, I was very surprised to receive it. Um, this is the first time the award has been given out in Montana. Uh, and so I'm very humbled and it's been uh an extreme honor to work in this position and it is because of Great Falls Public Schools that I get I was able to find my passion um and lifelong desire to improve school nursing and dedicate my career and foster the careers of other school nurses to improve the health of our children. So, thank you so much for the support that you all have given me in that journey. Um, and it has been a really full circle moment as I have at least one former teacher
043uh in the audience who helped give me a lot of leadership skills and so many people in this room who have poured into me to uh help build my leadership skills. So, thank you very much. >> Congratulations, Erica. And with that, Mr. Chair, and one more, good luck and congratulations to our seniors. Um, that is my board report. I stand for questions if you have any. >> Yes, Mrs. Hoyer, I have a question. >> Yes. You've talked about uh principal day and uh school bus drivers day. Is there a superintendence day? >> There is a boss's day. >> So boss's day is in the fall and they that's when we celebrate it. Mr. Decon and I both are bosses and so we get to be >> I just wanted to make sure that you had
044a day of appreciation. Thank you. Any other questions for Mrs. Hoyer? Thank you for your report. And I have had uh no requests to speak before this board of trustees this evening. Um and at this point in time uh I'd like on behalf of my fellow trustees, myself to dismiss our students with uh a great number and supple uh thanks for a a good year. And those of you graduating, please do keep in touch. and for the remainder of you, we look forward to seeing you again in the fall. So once again, thank you for your representation of your schools. That brings us to action items. Action item A, Cascade County Elections Department to conduct 2627 school elections. Mr. Deakons. Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board, Superintendent Hoyer, and members of the community.
045Uh, tonight I'm before you to discuss and let you know where we're at in the point of school elections for 2026 27. We've just kind of moved on from the 25 26, but by law, we're required if we are going to have the Cascade County Elections Department run our election to do that declaration prior to June 1st of the current year and make sure that we have all the pieces in place. This is all in accordance to MCA 20-20 and there's several different numbers that go along with that in the N4172031341 and MCA 13-15-301. There's two pieces that are going to go to you today and you'll see them attached. There's first the OPI contract for the election and then the letter stating that we were requesting the county to run our elections. I've been
046working with Terry Thompson down at the elections office on this, making sure we have all the pieces up to date. At this point in time, the approximate cost to run a school election based on our last one or previous one was $70,000. We're still using that number. I would expect that to probably go up a little bit next year. It's just dependent upon all the pieces that fall in place. So, with that and the attachments that you had for your review, I am going to request that you officially ask the Cascade County Elections Department to run the elections for the Great Falls Public School Districts 1 and A during the 2026 2027 school year. >> Thank you, Mr. Defense. Trusty Thompson. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Second moved and seconded to officially ask the Cascade County
047Elections Department to run our elections for 2627 school year. Any questions or comments from our board of trustees? Any questions or commentary from anyone else in the room? Hearing seeing none, I'll call for the question. And all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson. >> Action item B, second reading of board policies 3612, 3612P, 5450F, and 4330P. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board. Um I come before you with our second reading for the above listed or the above mentioned um scoreboard policies. Those are policies 3612 which is district provided access to electronic information equipment services and networks. Once again a very special thank you to Mr. Jeff Williams and his
048department for working on that and the companion of 3612P which is student computer acceptable use and internet safety agreement. Um, as mentioned before, these are coming for your second reading. We think that we'll probably be seeing these more often as um AI and other things start to impact um our technology. Then 5450F, which is revised, that's the staff computer acceptable use and internet safety agreement. Again, thanks to Mr. Williams and his department. And then we did um a new policy 4330P community use of school facilities procedures with a thank you to um Mr. Boyd, Mr. Decon's, Mrs. Mainwearing, and the group that came together to work on that is our school facilities are important facilities. They are community property, but they are also when they're used uh 247 year round, they have some wear and
049tear that happens to them. So, we have to be sure that we are being good stewards um of those assets that we have. Um, one thing I did want to note to you, I've had no feedback outside of one minor grammatical change on any of these policies and that is on page 54 for you. So, policy uh 3612P, thank you to Trusty Bronson. um at the end of line 24 where it reads it is possible for an we struck industrious left persistent and so we needed to change that from an and an to an A. Um but that is the only change that has come forward through public comment. So with that my recommendation is that those four policies 3612 3612P 5450F and 4330P are um >> Mr. Chairman, >> Trusty Brownson, >> this time
050I would move we approve board policies 3612, 3612P, 5450F, and 4330P as presented. >> Second. >> Been moved and seconded to revise the policies that Mrs. Hoyer uh went through with us. Any questions or commentary from our board of trustees? From anyone else in the room? All those of all those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying I. I >> oppose same sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Mrs. Hoyer. Thank you. Those of you on the U policy committee action either nothing was pulled from the consent agenda. We'll move on to reports and discussions and policies. A Children's Internet Protection Act compliance public notice. Mr. Williams. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, Trustees, and community. The report I'm going to give you tonight is basically a standard report for each year due to
051-ate requirements. If you remember, -ate is the the national I'm losing my words here tonight. Sorry about that. It's been a Monday. The national funding that we get for our internet services and some equipment. So due to that, they require us to take and validate and verify that we are compliant with SEPA, Children's Information Protection Act. If you remember from last year, the and I checked it out again, the number of new websites per day is still at 252,000 a day. So with that being said, protecting the students from getting at content or from content getting to the students that is not acceptable. We do have filters. We do have a content filter that dictates and removes all that or at least restricts the access to it. We do control that content filter. So therefore
052when something is needed to be able to be accessed that is not accessible today we will look at it the technology coaches will validate it and then we will accept that policy. So we do have that protection for the students that does comply with sea because of that and as you also know we just for tonight anyway we went through the internet policies for acceptable use and how we take and deal with the technology in the district. Ironically, we are compliant with SEPHA. So, this does validate that and does comply with the -ray policies. Is there any questions? >> Any questions for Mr. Williams? >> No. Thank you for your good work on this. >> Appreciate it. >> Reports, discussion, and policies B. First reading of the 2627 board meeting calendar. Mr. Deakons. >> Thank
053you, Chairman Johnson. um members of the board, members of the community, and superintendent Hoyer. First, I want to start this off by um saying a sincere thank you to somebody whose name doesn't get brought up very often, but that's Miss Sher Clark. Um she spends a lot of time with us putting all these pieces together to make sure we have all of our board meeting agendas ready to go. And you don't see it in the background, but sometimes she does have to like beat us over the head a little bit um to get to that point. Um without question, she does a fabulous job with it. Over the last couple weeks, um, Mrs. Clark, Superintendent Hoyer, myself, we've been reviewing the board calendar for next year. There are a couple small adjustments that you are
054going to see on there. This is a year because of budget purposes. We will be the first and third meeting or first and third Mondays of August for our meeting just to hit our deadlines that are in there without having to have an additional special board meeting in between in addition to work sessions and so forth. We also have on Labor Day, I believe it is, you will see like we have with Memorial Day this year, it'll be rolled to the Tuesday after. Other than that, there are no other changes. Um, we think we have this fairly well aligned to budget and election calendars throughout the year, but as you know, OPI sometimes does not publish the official until August or September. So, just be prepared if we need to come to you and make
055any changes. We'll try to do that as far in advance as we possibly can. Thank you. And we echo your thanks to Mrs. Clark and her work in getting us all organized. So, thank you so much. Deeply appreciated. and reports discussion and policies. C Star STARS Act report Mrs. Spurs. Welcome. >> Good evening, Chairman Johnson, Superintendent Hoyer, members of the board, member of the community. I am just here to report on the student and teacher advancement for results and success act which we refer to as the stars act. The stars act came about from Montana house bill 252 was signed into law May of 2025. Its initiative is aimed at boosting Montana's K through2 education system by incentivizing districts to increase starting teacherbased salaries to 62% of the average teacher pay by 2026 and increasing
056to 70% by 2030. So, Great Falls Public Schools and the Great Falls Education Association came to an agreement during the last bargaining session to include the STARS Act when calculating starting teacher-based salaries to provide high quality working conditions for its employees. For the 2627 school year, it was agreed upon that the starting salary would be 70% of the average teachers pay, which ends up being 48,300 or 11 times the quality educated educator's payment, which is $42,856, whichever one is higher. To find the average salary, the average salary for elementary was computed and multiplied by 70%. Which came with 47,362. The high school average salary was computed and multiplied by 70% which ended up being 48,300. The high school salary was the highest resulting in the one that we used for making the starting salary 48,300
057up from 46,500 for the upcoming school year. Fiscal implications to figure out the approximate fiscal implication because we haven't hired all of our teachers yet and all the movement that they do. I pulled how many teachers were in the current steps that are affected by the stars act. So I took this year's amount and multiplied it by um to figure out how many teachers would be affected by this stars act and what cells they were in. It was approximately 106 teachers that would be affected. Meaning 106 would get the 3% increase negotiated through the collective bargaining agreement. An additional $330 increase to reach the starting stars base salary threshold. The cost to the Great Falls Public Schools equivalates to approximately $35,297 for the 2627 school year. These figures are approximate based like I said where
058the teachers are currently placed on the salary schedule and will fluctuate slightly when actual salary placements are calculated for the 2627 year. Um are there any questions? You know, um I had asked this question earlier in a more uh less formal setting, but the STARS Act is relatively new, but what impact have we as a district u felt from that act? Has it made it easier for us to find teachers? >> I think so. I think it's put us on the map a little bit that we have a higher rate of pay for starting teachers. Chairman Johnson, can I add just there shortly? >> Please do. >> Um, just one point I want to make too and I think uh, President Cage also realizes this. Last year that jump was quite substantial moving from I
059think the base was just over 40,000 if I remember correctly to the 465 and you were basically moving everybody that $6,000 within that group. It is um, nice to know that how we work together. I think we came up with a pretty good plan where it balanced the second year a little bit of that. We don't have to move $6,000 for somebody to get there. We're back to that more normal. It's still a little bit above um what the 3% increase was for everybody. But I think if you look at it, just quick math I was doing here, it looks like it's about 3.5 or something. 3.7 Tom. Um, so I it tells us we worked pretty well together to get to that point so we could manage that 70%. That was a real key
060piece for the district to be able to pay for those. If you start at 62 and you spend all your money on 62%, >> there's nothing when you just had 3% to move up to 64 and there's always going to be that gap. So I think as a district, we just appreciate the time we spent with GFA to come up with something that would work for the long haul, not just the short term. So thanks. Thank you for that response and thanks to all the players uh in making this work. Any other questions or comments from Miss Person? If not, you're free to go. >> Thank you. Reports, discussion, and policies D. First reading of board policies 3310, 5240, 7332, 7332F. Mrs. Hoyer. >> Thank you, Chairman Johnson, members of the board. members of our
061community. Um I bring to you today four policies for first read. The very first one which is 3310 U which is student discipline is the final of your annually reviewed policies that we have to review and go over by statute. And so if you take a look through 3310, you'll notice that there are um there's only one tiny change and that's on page 83. You'll notice that we changed line 22. We took out school and we changed that to district to u make it fit for our larger district. Moving on then to policy 5240 which is resolution of staff complaints. This is one um that we decided to take a look at and review and and adjust the wording on as we looked at the uniform complaint policies in previous board meetings. realized that uniform
062needs to be uniform um across, you know, across our policies. We then leaned on 5240 um to really talk about how can we assist our staff members or personnel um when they have a complaint or a concern that is not covered by the CDA. So, a couple of things I do want to walk you through. Um mainly you'll find that on lines 12 through 18. You'll notice that lines 24 through 26 been crossed out. They are now encompassed within that paragraph on 12 through 18 where it talks about an employee disagreeing with a policy or a practice that they should first go to their supervisor which is common practice and what we want to handle it at the lowest level. If the disagreement is unresolved, they can go through the uniform complaint procedure which is
063policy 1770 unless and there's going to be there's a substitution that's been recommended by Tom Cubbage which I believe is an accurate substitution and it should read unless the issue is covered by a collective bargaining agreement because even if an employee is covered by a CBA sometimes the things that they have complaints about are not found within the CPA. So, this allows them to have an avenue to pursue complaints in addition to that CBA coverage. Um, and then we have the adjustments to the cross references. The next one for your first reading is financial management. And this is one that we've been working on for advertising in our schools and revenue enhancement. Um, you'll see in a few minutes that we'll have a companion 7332P or F, sorry, that goes along with that. But there
064have been some adjustments made to this as the desire from our community to advertise within our schools and support our schools has become more prevalent and louder in some cases um than we've seen before. So, how do we take advantage of some of our beautiful facilities and things like the video boards that are in them, streaming services, social media, um, fixed signage, yet still maintain the mission and the vision that makes Great Falls Public Schools such an incredible place to learn and is such a good place to work. So, the changes within 7332, you will see those changes reflected. The last one is the companion one that goes along with it and that starts on page 88 and it will run all the way through the end of your agenda to page 92. Um when
065we looked over this in policy we ended up coming back together again Mr. Decon and Mrs. Mainwearing and I did um in part because I was struggling with some of the wording in it. um I felt that the wording was not um aligned with what you would see a 7332P because we originally proposed it as a as a procedure versus a form and it was definitely written as a form. We changed that and things seem to align real well. Um, this is going to outline for you the sports activities revenue enhancement program where they all occur, whether they're in Memorial Stadium, whether they're at CMR, um, whether they are at um, in the fieldhouse at Great Falls High or in that fieldhouse at CMR. It talks about the costs of the sponsorships. It talks about
066those video boards we spent time on. And it lays out um a vision of packages um that people could purchase to advertise both their support of the schools but also reinforce the mission of education and sportsmanship um within those. So this is somewhat of a new foray for us. It's not completely new. We have had advertisements within our field houses and also on the field of Memorial Stadium, but it does greatly expand the practice we already have and it tightens it up. So, special thank you to Mr. Boyd and Mrs. Mainwearing who have worked very hard with Mr. um Hennterburg in the athletic departments and with the principles at the two high schools and then also leaning on Mr. funds for the business end of it to be sure that we're actually getting covering all
067of our available facilities. So with that, those are your first readings. Um I would encourage you to read them care carefully, especially that last policy and please please ask us questions um when you have questions about these policies. >> Thank you very much. And um these will come up for potential ratification at our next regular board meeting which is uh on it's one of those that comes on a Tuesday May 26. Yeah. >> Very good. Thank you, >> Mr. Chairman. >> Appropriate to comment on that this time? >> Please do. >> Thanks. Um, I'll try not to ramble. First off, I appreciate the work that's gone to that one specifically 7332. I know the work that's gone into that. I appreciate the time and effort everybody's put into it >> and through policy committee agenda
068planning. We talked about it several times and I always left not feeling right about it. And I really thought about it a lot over the weekend. and I spent a lot of time kind of reflecting on it and we all draw a line on what we think is appropriate for us as a district and for me personally that the video ads is across the line for me. I don't think that's appropriate for us as a school or as a school district. Um we're not the U of M or MSU Boseman or a D1 colleges running a sports entertainment business on the side. I think that time should really be saved for our students and to recognize our students and staff. As far as specific like the U scoreboard at the stadium, if we want to
069run ads pregame, that's something I might entertain once things start. I don't think it's appropriate. We've got cheerleaders and drill team and band who put a lot of time and effort in practicing to prepare and I don't think it's appropriate to weigh them versus the selling that time to somebody else. And as well also the social media aspect of advertising. We've talked about that in meetings before. I would like to see some really really strict guidelines on what is and isn't appropriate for that. Um the same my line if we're running advertisements basically on our district Facebook pages or whatever. I don't think that's appropriate. I think that avenue needs to be safe for highlighting our student achievements, our staff achievements, getting out important messages to our families in the community. And I know as
070a parent, I don't look at it very much, but as soon as I see ads on there, I'm done. And then I'm missing important announcements that might come out or recognizing students. That's where I draw the line. And I thought a lot over the weekend about what it really was that kind of sat with me wrong about that. And I think, you know, in today's world, there should be some places that are free from commercial influence. There should be places families can go with their kids, whether they're rooting for their kids, friends of kids, friends or just have some home time, hometown pride and hometown spirit. They should be able to go to a football game or basketball game without being subjected to paid advertisements being played in their face. To me, I dread the
071day that I take my kids to a high school football game and we're watching ads on the stadium instead of what's going on on the field. It detracts from the experience. It detracts from what I think our mission as a district is and what I think our obligation to our students and staff is. So, I do appreciate the work that goes in it. Said it never I never left meetings feeling good about it and I really reflect a lot over the weekend and that's what it is to me. We need to maintain some sense of community and I think our school and our athletic events and school facilities is a place that we control and we can try to preserve a little community in those places. >> Thank you for your commentary, Mr. Duff. >>
072Sure. Thanks for the time. >> Certainly. That brings us to e discussion committee reports and comments. So we'll start uh at this end of the table. Trustee Sunchild. spoke and presented like she's been doing this for 20 years. She was fantastic. They were great events. Um it's always a great bucket filler for me. I get to see teachers and and um talk to people feel like I'm doing. So, that was great. She did fantastic proud. And Luke, you must have been beaming with pride during that CMR um Benton Lake duck thing. Like, I can still name all those ducks every time I go anywhere. I can name those things. And and pong horn. I mean, there we go. Oh, no. That's a no. Trusty Bronson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I I'll echo what's been said
073about the scholarship event. I was there, too, and I think all of us really appreciate that opportunity to see our young people and the success that they have uh this that they've reached, you know, in their this part of their life. And it's always nice be asked to stand in for donors that can't be there. But I particularly appreciate the fact that we ask all of them to prepare written thank yous, you know, to the donors. Uh I know some donors for them that thank you is what really means everything. Just a courtesy that I'm glad we require of of these young folks. Other than that, I know we're all looking forward to graduations, but I'm also looking forward to the ribbon cutting for the high school house this week. It's been nice to kind
074of watch that uh pretty much arise from a concrete slab. I know every year we look forward to these and just glad we have an opportunity to give our young people once again the chance to develop these kind of skills that do them well in their careers and give somebody in this community home. So, glad that we participated in this program. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rusty Thompson. >> Well, I wanted to uh I got a chance to uh be at CMR this afternoon. I um I helped with eight interviews for leadership high school and um that was >> pretty exciting to just see a handful of sophomores um that will be um they'll be juniors next year that'll be in that program. So like all eight of them so well spoken, so thoughtful, but
075above all they were all very authentic and I really appreciated that. Um, and then I just want to let you all know that I'm very sad that I'm missing uh gradu a lot of graduation week, a lot of the events. I'll be back for the two big graduations, but I'm sorry that I've already missed some of the events so far. Um, but um, yeah, my work's been taking me traveling too much. So, um, apologize ahead of time and thank you for all stepping in and helping out when when I can. Well, you are excused and eradicate any guilt. You don't need that weight. So, you fulfill your task as as needed. Thank you, Trusty Hanning. >> Uh, I just want to comment on Special Olympics and the fans in the stands. I got to be
076there >> um with the Valley View kiddos and we had a Valley View fifth grader participate in the 50 meter dash. he is going off this weekend to continue to participate and he was just it was so cool to see all the Valley View kids cheer for him and he you could tell it just boosted his spirits and he was loving it. It was great. Um unfortunately I cannot attend the high school house ribbon cutting because I will be with the valley be fourth graders at a day. That's been mistaken apparently with egg day. So it's ag not e g. But we'll be at the expo center, I think, the four seasons in the arena for the big agriculture convention for the fourth graders to to teach them all sorts of things. Um, and then
077to trust you, I just want to thank you for your comments that you made about the policies. Um, I think it's I think you made some good points and it is definitely something to consider. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> And you too are excused because you're embarking on a noble task on on that day. So, thank you for that. Absolutely. Trusty Duff. >> Thank you. I'll try not to ramble again. I just want to reflect for a moment. This is, I guess, more or less the end of my first year on the board. Um, I started about this time at the end of last school year, >> but I just wanted to say to my fellow board members, it's been a pleasure to serve alongside you guys. It's been a learning experience. Still is
078a learning experience, but it's been an honor to be a part of this. and to the district staff. Likewise, it's been a pleasure to work alongside you guys and thank you for humoring me with my endless requests for information and meetings. And I think Mrs. Mayor has an out of out of office notification when she gets an email from me now out of the office until the 4th of February. Um, but it's been a pleasure. And uh last comment I want to say my alma moater has a little slogan they've come up with since my time there and they say now paraphrase a bit what starts here changes the world and I have no doubt that there have been students come through this door that have every ability to walk out of here and change
079the world and I hope that we and not just we at the table but we as a district teacher staff and we as a bigger community have given them what they need to go forth. >> Thank you very much. very well spoken and it's been a great pleasure this year to have you and very valuable trustee. >> Thank you >> and your service to the district has been appreciated. Thank you very much. >> And I would just like to close by u expressing my appreciation for your confidence in me appointing me chair again. I I'll serve modestly and aspire to fulfill the task uh that we all share uh in making this the premier district in all of Montana and surrounding states. And we've got such a marvelous team working with us, working for us.
080And it's an absolute pleasure to serve with my fellow trustees. So, thank you very much. If there's no further well, somebody's going to have to take on Kim's row uh role. If there's no further business to come before this board of trustees, I would entertain a motion to to uh well, I was going to say expire, but I mean adjourn. >> Thank you, Trustee Henning. We are explain.